Brussels, 16/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - Mariann Fischer Boel, the Commissioner for Agriculture announced on Thursday 16 October that customs duties on cereal imports from third will be reintroduced in a few days time. These duties were provisionally suspended in January 2008 to tackle the high global demand and high increase in prices for certain raw materials. The lifting of these duties was extended last June by a year until 30 June 2009 (EUROPE 9682).
Since April 2008 (mainly due to the forecasts of big harvests), cereal prices are falling, in the EU and elsewhere in the world. Since the end of September, the “FOB” price for wheat recording Community ports has gone clearly below 180% of the reference price. Since then, a draft regulation re-establishing customs duties on cereal imports was presented and accepted by member states at the cereals management committee. The regulation still has to be formally adopted by the Commission and will enter into force three days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. The Commission points out that at this moment there are no export refunds on cereals exports. (L.C./trans/rh)